”Before you continue, you must understand the danger of Ether.” Iroh said, “Have you forgotten about Apophis? You can control your Aether because it’s effectively staying within your Aether core. When you dispersed your Ether, the same thing didn’t apply.”
Nemes froze.
“The only reason he did nothing was because the amount of Ether you had dispensed was not enough for even him to do anything meaningful. It would only ruin any chance he has to manipulate you.”
A hint of amusement radiated from Apophis and the image of bullshit was pushed to the forefront of his mind. It was difficult to ignore him, but the magnitude of Iroh’s words drew him in.
“You may be wondering why we gave you the Ether conduits to begin with if you couldn’t use them,” Iroh said, and he was correct; Nemes had been wondering that exact thing. “It’s because you can. The arcane within your body does not belong to him- not to him alone, rather.”
Suddenly, a burst of power exploded from Apophis. Nemes almost blacked out from the full force of his aura, but it ended in almost the same instant that it started. Still, it was enough to cause Nemes to stumble and fall as he paced the room.
In a daze, Nemes could only barely register that somebody was talking to him. His vision was blurry and his body was trembling. Despite it all, he couldn’t help but be in awe at Apophis’ power.
Nemes gradually returned to awareness, finding there to be a group of people around his body. Iroh and Leon were speaking while three guards stood over his body.
“…given him a mental resistance artifact by now.” Leon finished, and Nemes distantly wondered why it was so frequent for him to be in such a daze that he only caught the tail-end of a conversation.
“The one we purchased from the Letvinians hasn’t arrived yet. Anything else would be utterly powerless against an Ancient Dragon, dead or alive.” Iroh said.
“Why’s it taking so long?” Leon asked, but it was clear from his tone and expression that it was a rhetorical question.
Regardless, Iroh answered with an angry tone; “It’s because of the Rift creatures. The abominations are making it difficult to travel, whether it be by ground, water, air or even subterranean. It’s so valuable that they wouldn’t dare risk losing it, and so it’s being transported by a bona-fide army.”
By now, two of the three guards had helped Nemes stand up, and so the two ended their conversation.
“That was Apophis, wasn’t it?” Iroh asked, but it was an empty question. They knew very well that the powerful, evil and bloodthirsty aura that had made even Leon stumble from behind a thick layer of arcane-resistant metal was not Nemes’.
His mind still scrambled, it took Nemes a moment to process the question. He nodded slowly in response, and Iroh nodded. He turned to one of the guards and said, “Tell Andorran to get the Iris here as soon as is possible. Not only is the Rift getting worse, but Apophis is more dangerous than we expected. From what Nemes has told us, it’d be outright harmful to bring him on the next mission without it.”
Nemes had recovered enough to understand what the humans were talking about now, although it did take a while longer than it usually would have.
‘Rift, Iris, Andorran, mission… Andorran must be another human and the Iris must be the mental resistance artifact they were talking about. The ‘Rift’ happens to be getting worse right as they want to send me on some sort of mission, and they called me a shield…’
“Let’s continue,” Iroh said, “We gave you the Ether conduits because, as we’ve already said, it does not belong to Apophis alone. You couldn’t manipulate the arcane because of your shackles, which have been removed. You both had control of the arcane within your body; Apophis is simply stronger; strong enough to overpower the shackles with ease. Just because it doesn’t belong only to him doesn’t mean he can’t easily overpower your attempts to use it, however. We gave it to you for a few reasons.”
Iroh took a breath before continuing:
“First, if we didn’t do it now, it would be impossible to do it in the future. You’d grow too large for us to implant the Ether conduits within your body. Second, if we were to, say, mount an ether-powered cannon onto your back, you’d have a way to use it even with Apophis’ interference. Third, we hope that mental resistance artifacts will make it so that you can use it regardless of Apophis’ interference.” Iroh finished.
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Nemes took a few seconds to process everything.
‘If the arcane within my body truly belonged only to Apophis, as he said it did, I wouldn’t have been able to manipulate the Ether outside of my own body. The Ether conduits probably won’t be useful for a while, then.’
“Let’s continue. We need an accurate assessment of your strength, but these,” Iroh gestured to the remaining poles, “Aren’t useful anymore. We already know that you won’t be able to damage them. Instead, you’re going to do something else.”
***
Soon enough, Nemes found himself within yet another enormous, sterile room with only a few interesting aspects. The monotone appearance of the Greenhaven Institute’s interior made him long for the outside, but that wasn’t important right now.
A single humanoid golem- ‘Machine,’ Nemes corrected- stood before him. It was big and bulky, with four legs instead of two. Its left arm was almost entirely composed of an incredibly compact cannon and its right ended in a long and sharp blade.
According to Iroh, this was a mass-produced soldier that wasn’t uncommon to see, and yet Nemes wasn’t sure if he could beat it. Nemes knew for certain that he’d lose to a pair of them.
‘What is even the point of the guards?’ Nemes wondered. They were human; he knew that much and this thing was almost certainly more dangerous.
‘I’ll ask later.’ Nemes quickly concluded as a loud ‘Beep!’ rang out within the room, signaling that the fight had begun.
Nemes started to lunge forward, but the golem’s bladed arm made him hesitate.
‘I can’t stay away. It has a ranged weapon and I don’t.’ Nemes quickly concluded. It would soon prove to be easier said than done, however.
He lunged forward, but the golem swiped at him with its bladed arm, and he pulled back at the last moment, narrowly dodging the weapon.
Nemes immediately regretted his decision as the golem’s cannon fired suddenly and within warning. A chunk of stone the size of a human’s hand slammed into his flank, but his scales absorbed the impact.
Nemes’ eyes widened when he remembered his scales. His scuffles with Cetus had made him think his scales were significantly weaker than they really were. With little hesitation this time, Nemes lunged.
The golem didn’t swipe this time, but instead punched, with formidable speed. The force of its blow, concentrated into a small area and cracked a pair of scales, but failed to deal any real damage. It reminded him that he wasn’t invincible, though.
Nemes slammed into its torso with his pairs of horns, denting the metal and causing its upper body to jerk backwards. Its four legs granted it a great level of stability and kept it upright.
Its bladed arm punched forth once more, but this time, it aimed for his lesser-scaled underbelly. Nemes threw himself to the left, narrowly dodging the blow but also ending up on his side.
The golem punched at his head with its bladed arm, but his four horns deflected the blow with relative ease. He was in the process of standing up when the golem took a step backwards as it aimed its cannon arm at him.
Nemes’ eyes locked onto something he hadn’t been paying attention to before; the flow of the arcane within its body. The Aether helped its body to move, alongside the human machine-stuff beneath its thick metal armor, but its Ether powered its cannon.
It did nothing to help him just yet, but it was a revelation nonetheless.
Its cannon fired at him again, but this time, it didn’t shoot a mere chunk of stone. A hand-sized ball of iron… plopped out of its cannon, hitting the ground with a loud ‘Clank!’
“You would’ve been severely injured, if not killed, if we had it go through with the attack. You lost.” Leon said from the side, “Try again.”
A fire burned within his chest as Nemes stared at the golem. He had every intention of beating it this time.
***
“Why’d he do so much worse than when he was scuffling with Cetus?” Iroh asked absent-mindedly.
“Leon thinks that Apophis was subtly affecting him, whether it be intentional or not. Now that Apophis took himself out for a while, Nemes’ combat ability isn’t nearly as good as it used to be. I bet he’ll lose a few more times before he makes any progress. No creature is born with skill; not even dragons. They still fear death and pain; they hesitate and they panic. They don’t think ahead; they never feint or predict their opponent’s attacks.” Lydia, another arcane expert, said.
Iroh pressed a button, and a ‘Beep!’ rang out, starting the second fight. Nemes surged forward immediately, enduring the warbot’s swipe and grabbing hold of a leg. Nemes tried to yank it out from under the warbot, but it was strong enough to resist Nemes’ attempt- long enough, at least.
Nemes narrowly avoided the warbot’s powerful bladed punch. It had been aimed at a wound and would’ve gotten through his scales.
Unexpectedly, Nemes’ tail whipped forward even as he leapt back right on the joint, causing it to briefly go limp.
In the moment before the warbot regained its balance, Nemes lunged forward, easily enduring the warbot’s slash, and bit into its shoulder, which was now within its reach.
The arcane detectors within the room showed that Nemes infused his body with Aether as he pulled backwards, knocking the four-legged warbot down.
After that, the fight was effectively over. The warbot tried to stand again and again, but Nemes didn’t allow it, and the warbot couldn’t retaliate well enough to mention from the ground.
“I thought you said that it’d take him a few more fights before he’d make any progress?” Iroh said, glancing at Lydia.
“I did.”